New Delhi: As per the budget documents, the government has allocated nearly Rs 3.1 lakh crore for women-centric schemes for the current financial year in the interim budget. These schemes include 100 per cent women-centric schemes and other schemes with 30 per cent women participation. However, this time a greater focus is expected on the women-centric schemes as one of the reasons for poor showing of the ruling coalition in the Lok Sabha election was resentment among its core support base, including women.
In fact, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman highlighted the focus on four core segments in her budget speech for the interim budget for the current financial year in February this year. In her words, these are the poor, farmers, women and youth. She listed out the measures taken by the government in the last 10 years to empower women.
“The empowerment of women through entrepreneurship, ease of living and dignity for them has gained momentum in these 10 years,” the Finance Minister had said.
Sitharaman also informed the Lok Sabha that 30 crore Mudra Yojana loans have been given to women entrepreneurs and how the government has given the ownership of over 70 per cent of houses under PM Awas Yojana in rural areas to women as sole or joint owners to enhance their dignity.
Among other things, Sitharaman also listed out the law enacted by the Modi government to give one-third reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and state Vidhan Sabhas and make instant Triple Talaq among Muslims illegal.
Despite these women-centric initiatives listed out by her in the budget speech, the poor showing of the ruling coalition in the general elections, particularly in the most populous state Uttar Pradesh was attributed to resentment among women voters.
In fact, the announcement of the Har Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana way of PM Solar Rooftop scheme and the effort to woo women voters to byway Lakhpati Didi scheme did not seem to work to the advantage of the ruling NDA in the election and as a result, the government is likely to renew its efforts to woo women constituents in this budget.
What is the gender budget?
The gender budget includes those allocations in the budget that is aimed specifically at women such as the allocation made to the Ministry of Women and Child Development, scholarships and pension schemes targeted at women.
Due to greater awareness about their rights, the concept of gender budget and the allocations made for women-centric schemes in the budget have drawn much public attention.
For example, the actual expenditure for the Ministry of Women and Child Development was over Rs 24,000 crore, which rose to close to Rs 26,000 crore in the last financial year as per the revised estimates. In the interim budget, Sitharaman had allocated Rs 26,600 crore to the ministry.
The allocation to the ministry is not significant given the overall expenditure of the Union government, which has been estimated at over Rs 47 lakh crore for the current financial year and it works out to a little over half a per cent of the total budget.
However, the Centre allocates a significant amount of the budget to women beneficiaries through Central Sector Schemes and Centrally Sponsored Schemes that are implemented by the state governments.
While Central Sector schemes are fully funded by the Centre, the Centrally Sponsored Schemes are jointly funded by both the Centre and States, but in most cases, the majority of the funding comes from the Centre.
How money is allocated to women-centric schemes?
The Ministry of Women and Child Development runs schemes such as Samarthya, which includes Shakti Sadan, Swadhar, Ujjawala, Widow Home and Shakhi Niwas for providing hostels to working women and Palna, a National Creche Scheme.
In addition, it runs Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana and the National Hub for Women Empowerment. Second, the government also allocates a significant amount of money to women through other ministries as well.
For example, the Namo Drone Didi programme with a budget outlay of Rs 500 crore for the current financial year is implemented through the Ministry of Agriculture, but it’s a 100 per cent women-centric scheme.
The government also allocated over Rs 130 crore to promote women's participation in science through the DISHA programme under the Ministry of Science and Technology.
As per the budget data, the 100 per cent women centric schemes have an allocation of over Rs 1.12 lakh crore for the current financial year, including schemes such as Nirbhaya, Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0, Sabal and Samarthya, among others.
Central schemes with one-third of women's participation
The Centre runs multiple schemes where women have at least 30 per cent participation. For example, the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare runs Krishonnati Yojana with an outlay of Rs 2,234 crore for the year.
The Department of Education runs several schemes, which have a cumulative budget of nearly Rs 25,000 crore for the year while the Department of Higher Education has several schemes for higher education, scholarships and grants for research among other things and these schemes with 30 per cent women participation have a cumulative budget outlay of Rs 15,722 crore for the year.
As per the budget data, the gender budget of the Union government increased from Rs 2.17 lakh crore (actual) in FY 2022-23 to Rs 3.10 lakh crore (budget estimate) in FY 2024-25.
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